The meta-theme of the 2020 presidential campaign (assuming it happens) is already well defined. It will be a referendum on Trump. Voters who have dodged the coronavirus will decide whether he performed beautifully during the crisis, the most perfect and beautiful ever – or whether his rank incompetence ratcheted up the death toll and wreaked unnecessary havoc on the economy.

One small episode this week illustrates how nervous Trump is that voters might view him unfavorably. His re-election campaign is upset that local TV stations in six swing states are airing a pro-Biden ad that accuses Trump of being less than vigilant during the early days of the health crisis. The Trump regime says the ad is a lie. Which is a funny complaint, because the ad features Trump’s own spoken words. Check it out.

The regime is so unhinged about this ad – produced by Priorities USA Action; running in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – that it’s trying to muscle the locals into pulling it off the air. A Trump attorney sent a letter warning the TV outlets that running the ad “could put your station’s license in jeopardy” with the Federal Communications Commission

That’s the old Nixon con. Back in the early ’70s, before Tricky Dick’s downfall and the jailing of his many criminal aides, he threatened to hurt the Washington Post’s parent company by pulling its local TV licenses. He never followed through in court (nor, in all likelihood, will Trump) because there’s broad First Amendment protection for advertised political speech. And the FCC doesn’t pull licenses when stations exercise those rights.

Indeed, this week, a spokesman for WTSP in St. Petersburg, Florida shrugged off the Trump threat: “In the interest of fairness and providing space for a diversity of opinions, we lean towards facilitating speech unless there’s a strong justification for rejecting a particular ad.”

There’s no strong justification for rejecting an ad that features Trump himself uttering some of his greatest hits (“you have 15 people and in a couple of days it will be down to close to zero”) as the chart spikes. Trump’s regime seems most incensed about the clip where Trump says “this is their new hoax!” The regime says Trump never called the coronavirus a hoax; what he actually said, during a rally, was that criticism of his crisis performance was a hoax.

So I guess it’s a hoax to point out that the Trump regime ignored a 2016 preparedness playbook, created by the National Security Council, that would’ve saved a lot of the lives being lost today. So I guess it’s a hoax to point this out, too: “Of the 75 senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security, 20 are either vacant or filled by acting officials, including Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary who recently was unable to tell a Senate committee how many respirators and protective face masks were available in the United States.” So I guess it’s a hoax to point out that what Trump said last night on Fox News – downplaying the dire need for more respiratory devices – borders on criminal negligence: “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be. I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators.”

The Trump lawyer’s letter closes with this passage: “We will not stand idly by and allow you to broadcast false, deceptive, and misleading information concerning President’s Trump’s healthcare positions without consequence.” Which is hilarious, because Trump’s daily propaganda gig at the press room podium is replete with false, deceptive and misleading information. Which is just another reason why Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, is increasing the ad buy for his devastating commercial: “The fact that Trump is going to great lengths to keep the American people from hearing his own words adds to the urgency of communicating them far and wide.”

Thus, the referendum of 2020: Will voters rally ’round Trump during this crisis because he’s the only “president” they’ve got – or will they heed the evidence of their own eyes and ears (evidence that Joe Biden has also highlighted in a devastating ad on Twitter)?

One right-wing columnist at The Wall Street Journal tried yesterday to go the rally ’round route: “Trump will be remembered as a great president if he rises above the pettiness of our times and rallies the U.S. through the coronavirus crisis.”

Right. And chimpanzees will be miraculous if they quit babbling and start quoting Socrates.